City Festival of Music, Invention & Knowledge

10th – 24th October 2024

Join us to hear the City and see the City. This autumn, the

City Festival of Music, Invention & Knowledge celebrates the City’s unique environment, beauty and creativity through a two week programme of live music and performance.

As the birthplace of London, the City is a place with an ever-changing skyline – modern creations set against Christopher Wren’s baroque churches. We invite you to experience iconic City spaces in new ways.

Festival highlights

  • British Jazz pianist Julian Joseph in Mansion House, with a stellar new quintet and state-of-the-art surround sound

  • Italy’s innovative Eklectric Duo, performing a playlist from hot Paganini to Coldplay

  • Music of Paganini, Rossini and Verdi by Genoa's guitar maestro Josè Scanu

  • The Flower of Cities, a musical tour of City destinations and Paganini variations, set in architectural beauty

  • Bach, Paganini and the music of bees from Benjamin Marquise Gilmore and Tenebrae

  • Free lunchtime concerts from emerging new talent

  • Vivaldi singing workshop

The Festival of Music, Invention & Knowledge is supported by the Lord Mayor, Michael Mainelli, as part of his mayoral theme Connect to Prosper; The City of London Corporation's Destination City programme; and the Comune of Genoa. Curated by Artistic Director Ian Ritchie, and produced by Tessa Marchington, Music in Offices.

“I am delighted to be patron of this new festival in the City of London, reflecting the nature of the ‘Square Mile’ as a trading place and a cultural destination, locally and internationally, while also representing other key themes of my mayoralty”
— Festival Patron, The Lord Mayor Alderman Michael Mainelli

Festival Programme

Before they are famous
St Dunstan-in-the-West

Julian Joseph Jazz Academy

Paganini & improvisation

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THURSDAY
10TH OCTOBER
13:05

FREE – Walk-ins welcome, but to guarantee your seat & stay in touch, please register below.

Supported by

Atmospheres: Julian Joseph (piano) / Benet McLean (violin) / Kaidi Akinnibi (saxophone) / Alok Verma (tabla) / Mark Hodgson (bass)
Mansion House

Julian Joseph presents an exciting new band, with music specially written and improvised versions of Bach and Paganini, for the audience to experience sound in a totally new way:emotion and drama enhanced by immersive technology, marrying acoustic sound with split second digital processing capability, featuring the brand new ‘d&b Soundscape’ system.

Pre-concert - 18:45 Michael Poll (guitar)

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THURSDAY
10TH OCTOBER
19:30

£30/40 incl. glass of wine

Before they are famous
St Dunstan-in-the-West

Young Artists from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama

Matteo Cimatti (violin), Gabriel Francis-Dehqani (cello) & Zany Denyer (piano): works by Paganini, Elgar, Busoni & Britten

Paganini Caprice No.2 for solo violin

Elgar Violin Sonata in E minor op82

Busoni Serenata for cello and piano op34

Britten Cello Sonata in C major op65

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MONDAY
14TH OCTOBER
13:05

FREE – Walk-ins welcome, but to guarantee your seat & stay in touch, please register below.

Supported by

Before they are famous
St Margaret Pattens

Young Artists from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama

Sonas Quartet: Yente Lottman & Isabelle Allan (violins), Eve Quigley (viola) & Alice Abram (cello)

Paganini String Quartet no3

Schumann String Quartet no1

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TUESDAY
15TH OCTOBER
13:05

FREE – Walk-ins welcome, but to guarantee your seat & stay in touch, please register below.

Supported by

Eklectric Duo: Electric Paganini
Milton Court Concert Hall

Eklectric Duo Elisa Tomellini (piano) & Alberto Casadei electric (cello): eclectica, ranging from hot Paganini to Coldplay

A. Casadei "Arabian Dream"
ColdPlay "Viva la Vida"
N.Rota "Il Padrino"
A.Casadei/A.Vivaldi "Summer Rock"
A.Casadei/G.Rossini "Figaro Madness"
N.Paganini Variations on one String on a Theme by Rossini
N.Paganini "Cantabile"
A.Casadei/Daft Punk "Get Lucky Hacked"
A.Casadei/J.Corry "Head&Heart Hacked"
A.Casadei/AVICII "Levels Hacked"

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WEDNESDAY
16TH OCTOBER
19:00

£20

To book wheelchair spaces with a companion, please contact the Barbican’s Access Bookings telephone number: 020 7101 1188, open from 10am to 17:30, Monday to Sunday. 

For any other phone enquiries, please contact 0207 870 2500, open from 12pm to 17:30, Monday to Friday. 

Before they are famous
St James Garlickhythe

Young Artists from the Royal College of Music

Paganini inventions & variations

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THURSDAY
17TH OCTOBER
13:05

FREE - Walk-ins welcome, but to guarantee your seat & stay in touch, please register below.

Supported by

Mazzini & Paganini: the Guitar and the Opera
St James Garlickhythe

José Scanu (19th C guitar): Genoa’s living maestro presents Paganini’s virtuoso sonatas and arrangements of contemporaries, Rossini and Verdi

N. Paganini 4 Ghiribizzi M.S. 43
from Paisiello, Mozart, Sussmayer, Rossini
M. Carcass Pot pourri sur les aires de Giocchino Rossini op.13
L. Legnani 4 Capricci for guitar (from 36 Capricci op.20)
G. Rossini Overture from La Cenerentola
N. Paganini 4 Sonate for guitar M.S.84
G. Verdi Il trovatore
(extract from Opern Revue of J.K.Mertz op.8)

José Scanu will perform with a nineteenth century guitar from Guadagnini’s school (Turin)

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THURSDAY
17TH OCTOBER
19:00

£20

To book wheelchair spaces with a companion, please contact the Barbican’s Access Bookings telephone number: 020 7101 1188, open from 10am to 17:30, Monday to Sunday. 

For any other phone enquiries, please contact 0207 870 2500, open from 12pm to 17:30, Monday to Friday. 

Before they are famous
St Mary-le-Bow

Young Artists from the Royal Academy of Music

Paganini chamber music

Centone de Sonata [Century of Sonatas] for Violin and Guitar no1

Quartet for Guitar and Strings

Grand Sonata in A major for guitar and violin

Cantabile for guitar and strings

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TUESDAY
22ND OCTOBER
13:05

FREE – Walk-ins welcome, but to guarantee your seat & stay in touch, please register below.

Supported by

Architecture is frozen music
St Mary-le-Bow

The Flower of Cities Ensemble: Francisco Correa & Xuefei Yang (guitars) / Max Baillie (violin) / Oscar Perks (viola) / Ben Hughes (cello) / Laurence Ungless (bass) / Matthew Brett (Percussion) Introduced by special guest, John Williams (speaker)

S. Goss Paganini Variations
S. Goss Frozen Music
Dufay (arr. S Goss) Nuper Rosarium Flores
S. Goss The Flower of Cities

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TUESDAY
22ND OCTOBER
19:00

£20

To book wheelchair spaces with a companion, please contact the Barbican’s Access Bookings telephone number: 020 7101 1188, open from 10am to 17:30, Monday to Sunday. 

For any other phone enquiries, please contact 0207 870 2500, open from 12pm to 17:30, Monday to Friday. 

Bach’s Invention: The Divine Trickery of JS Bach
LSO St Luke’s

Prof Milton Mermikides: Bach, Paganini & variations (Gresham Lecture)

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WEDNESDAY
23RD OCTOBER
18:00

FREE – Walk-ins welcome, but to guarantee your seat & stay in touch, please register below.

Supported by

Vivaldi Gloria
St Lawrence Jewry

Workplace choirs open workshop and short performance, led by Nigel Short (conductor of Tenebrae Choir)

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THURSDAY
24TH OCTOBER
13:05

FREE – Walk-ins welcome, but to guarantee your seat & stay in touch, please register below.

Supported by

Tenebrae: Bee for Bach
St Lawrence Jewry

Benjamin Marquise Gilmore (violin) / Tenebrae (choir) / Stephen Disley (organ) / Prof. Milton Mermikides (speaker)

Locatelli Caprice No. 1 (solo violin)
Anna Semple For thy Creature the Bee (choir and organ)
Paganini Caprice No. 24 (solo violin)
Bach Chorales (choir) interwoven with
Bach Partita No. 2 (solo violin, with choir in Ciaconna)
Dufay Nuper Rosarium Flores (choir)

Find out more

THURSDAY
24TH OCTOBER
19:00

£20

To book wheelchair spaces with a companion, please contact the Barbican’s Access Bookings telephone number: 020 7101 1188, open from 10am to 17:30, Monday to Sunday. 

For any other phone enquiries, please contact 0207 870 2500, open from 12pm to 17:30, Monday to Friday. 

Supported by

Tickets from £20 / half-price concessions for students and people aged under 22

Ian Ritchie
Artistic Director 

Ian Ritchie, singer, festival director and interdisciplinary curator, founded and programmed the new City Festival of Music, Innovation & Knowledge in 2024. Following studies at the Royal College of Music (where he won the Mario Grisi Prize in 1972), Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, he has spent more than 45 years leading a number of award-winning British music organisations, such as the City of London Sinfonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Opera North, and directed several international and local arts Festivals, including the St Magnus Festival (Orkney) and many editions of the City of London Festival. In 2010 Ian set up the Setubal Music Festival (Portugal), which he masterminded for nine years, and currently he continues to work for a number of music charities, advise various festivals, curate interdisciplinary projects and perform occasionally as a solo baritone.

Nearly 200 years ago, Paganini took London by storm after arriving from Genoa. Experience the same magic during a fortnight of concerts, talks, and workshops. Discover the beauty of the City and its architecture brought to life by music. There’s something for everyone to enjoy.

In the Press

Festival Supporters

  • Comune di Genova

  • City of London Corporation

  • Wax Chandlers’ Company

  • Wren300

  • New London Architecture

  • London Symphony Orchestra

  • Guildhall School of Music & Drama

  • Gresham College

  • Friends of the City Churches

  • d&b audiotechnik

  • Barbican Centre

  • Culture Mile Bid

“Music is liquid architecture and Architecture is frozen music”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe